Tag: FBYC

Fishing Bay Yacht Club

The 75th Annual One Design Regatta at Fishing Bay Yacht Club got off to a bit of a slow start with hardly any wind to be found.  The Laser fleet sat on the shore, boats rigged and communicated with the RC for when to come out to sail.  Eventually a whisper of something showed up on the course and we headed out.  Once on the course it was another 2 1/2 hours of sitting around before admitting defeat that the wind wasn’t going to fill and calling it a day.

By race time on Sunday we had a nice 6 knot breeze out of the ESE.  We had 8 Standard Lasers in our fleet.

75th FBYC AOD

In the first two races of the day the wind was still what I’d call ‘light’ with some shiftiness.  Eric Roos did a great job picking the shifts and put a nice lead on the rest of us on the first beat and held that to the finish.  I never felt comfortable with the boat in the first two races and just didn’t like my setup or boat speed.  I was hanging within sight of the leaders, but had to work to stay ahead of Brad, Mike and others all around me and settled for 3 & 5.

By the 3rd, 4th and 5th race we had another knot or two of pressure and I had settled down and gotten the boat setup right.  At the starts I was careful not to get pinned to one side of the course and to have clear air.  Upwind with the boat finally moving well I was able to pick my head out of the boat and really start picking the shifts.  On all 3 first upwind legs I was really well in phase and had 10+ boat length leads at the windward mark.

In one of those 3 races I made the downwind work and actually pulled away in one of them.  On the other 2 I felt like I was in a hole and struggled to not loose too much ground on the boats behind me.  In the final beat to the finish  of race 3 and 4 I was able to just cover the fleet and finish comfortably in 1st.  In the 5th race I made a few mistakes getting out of phase early in the final beat and had to play some catchup to finish just ahead of James Jacob who had been consistently 2nd all day long.

By the 6th and final race of the day the wind started easing just a bit.  I had a bad start, let myself get pinned on the wrong side of the course and rounded the first mark in 6th.  I clawed back to a 4th, but James Jacob’s consistency and my 4 & 5 put me 2 points behind him settling for 2nd place overall.

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Having had the new Laser out 5 times and this being the 2nd race day for it – it was really nice to finally have some races where I felt good and had it dialed in.  Two weeks from now is the District 11 Championship at Tred Avon and I can’t wait to give it another go.

Thanks to all of the other Laser sailors who came out and sailed with us and thanks to Matt Lambert for putting the regatta together and to Alex Alvis, Geoff Cahill, Donna Alvis, Cindy Corbett, David Lennarz, Brad Miller and everyone else who helped on RC.

Results

 

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We started the day with steady rain and plenty of it and hoping for a clearing to enable us to get some racing in for Fishing Bay Yacht Club‘s Summer Laser Regatta.  After watching the weather for a bit we were going to have a break around mid-day so we made the call to race right off the dock in the 8-10 SSW breeze we had.

We got off to an on time start with 11 boats on the line.  The racing was fun and competitive.  The wind was shifty.  A few quick sprinkles rolled over the course before clearing later in the day.

Alex Jacob did a masterful job in the first 4 races and stretched out in all of them to take bullets.  Robert Suhay, Len Guenther, myself, Mike Moore, Brad Squires and James Jacob all sailed in a pack just behind with any one of us challenging for 2-6 in every race.

PRO Lud Kimbrough and his crew of Eliza Strickland, Anna Matchett, Clay Harris, Katherine Harris, Miles Kimbrough & Just Wilton did a great job being out there under threat of storms and adjusting the course as the wind flaked back and forth.  The course lengths were great allowing us to stretch out just enough, but still keeping the starts and the races close.

My day and my first race with my new boat – No Quarter – was a bit of a mixed bag.  I had the boat together well enough, but my lack of time in the boat this year clearly showed.  I stayed with the pack and had some great legs, but wasn’t able to put a whole race together.  I’ll be Laser sailing the next 3 weekends and should be ready by then for the District 11 Championship at Tred Avon August 23-24.

RESULTS | PICTURES

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Saturday started out as a nice day for sailboat racing at Fishing Bay Yacht Club for the 2nd Sea Breeze regatta before storms chased us off the course.  I sailed in a 3-boat Front Runner fleet with crew Anna Matchett against Mark Stephens/Matt Braun & Kevin Cross/Matt Lambert.

In the first race we had a great start and won the boat shutting the other two boats out and forcing them to start behind us.  Up the first beat we had good speed and worked the shifts on the right side of the course.

We made a few crosses just ahead of the other two boats but lost out to Mark who snuck ahead of us right at the mark rounding. Downwind Mark played the middle while we went hard right.  The 2nd upwind leg was a little flukier.  We again played the middle right while Mark played the left and Kevin went up the left.  At the top mark we were in 1st, Kevin came way back to round in 2nd just ahead of Mark.  The final downwind was a drag race with us about 4 boat-lengths ahead of Mark and Kevin and in the end Mark edged Kevin out at the finish for 3 and some close racing.

Right at the end of the race Mark had a gear failure so it was just at two boat race for the 2nd race.  We had a terrible start, were slow crossing the line and lost a lot of ground to Kevin.  Halfway up the beat we heard on the radio that the course was being shortened so we did our best to play the shifts, but knew we were being sent in and a 2 was good enough to win the day.

Thanks Anna for coming sailing with me today.  And thanks David Hinkle and the race committee for running races for us.

RESULTS | PHOTOS | VIDEO

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What the wind left us wanting for on Saturday was delivered on Sunday.  Perfect sailing conditions with 10-14 knot breezes out of the south west and comfortable temperatures and partly cloudy skies.

Three more races were sailed.  We did as well as we could and didn’t make too many mistakes.  We still couldn’t hang with the faster boats and found ourselves 5-6-5 on the day.  All in all it was a fun regatta and nice to sail with Rob Whittet, Steve Utley and the rest of the Wavelength Crew as we helped raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Photos | Results | Video

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The first day of the Leukemia Cup Regatta got off to a bit of a slow start when racing was postponed on the water for almost 3 hours.  We had a couple teases where it looked to fill and thankfully we didn’t have triple-digit heat while we sat around.

We finally started a race and we had a good start at the boat with only Double Eagle between us and the boat. Below us were a couple J/105s.

We worked our way out to the left as we went up the course. All in all we sailed well, didn’t make any mistakes and got around the course cleanly. Unfortunately, we still couldn’t catch the 2 j109s or Voodoo 2 and settled for 4th.

Two of the j105s didn’t have such a hot first downwind leg. They were just behind us when one of them tried to gybe behind the other and wound up colliding. One boat put their spinnaker pole right into the cockpit behind the driver and as the boats tangled it sheared off the rear pulpit before the boats came to a stop and were untangled. There were no injuries but the damaged boat won’t be racing tomorrow.

With one race complete it was too late for another one and we headed in.

Following racing we boated over to the Deltaville Maritime Museum for a great dinner and entertainment.

And one of my photos was in the live auction raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.  It was cool to be featured alongside a couple of John Barbour prints.

Photos | Results

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Following Hurricane Arthur’s blowout of our July 4th racing on Friday we ended up with near perfect 8-10 knots and sunny skies for the Fishing Bay Yacht Club Summer Sea Breeze 1 Regatta. Tommy Roper was my crew for his first time on a Front Runner.

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The ace Front Runner team of Matt and A.L. Braun were back for this regatta and swept all 4 races. The Garrett clan of Waddy and Parker sharing the helm with Caroline crewing just seemed to edge us out downwind to take 4 second places on the day.   The racing was close and we didn’t make any major mistakes, we just couldn’t hang with the other two boats.

By the last race we had pretty much locked in 3rd place so I handed the tiller to Tommy who got to skipper his first race in a double-handed boat.

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Pictures | Results | Video

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Hurricane Arthur spoiled our plans to do the Annual Long Distance Race at Fishing Bay Yacht Club.  I was going to be sailing a Front Runner but the storm rolled through in the morning hours and so the racing was cancelled.  The Hurricane was well east of us and all we got was some rain and wind for a few hours.  We never saw winds much above 40.

Once the rain subsided much of the rest of the day was spent hanging out and doing a little bit a boat work.  By the afternoon the sun was out and it was a beautiful day albeit still a little windy.  We went for a boat ride, enjoyed the 4th of July party and band at the club  and then went out for another boat ride to watch fireworks 360-degrees all around.

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We started the July 4 weekend with some J/70 racing at Fishing Bay Yacht Club.  We had 6 boats out in 12-16 knots of wind for a few races.  I was on Nostalgia with Blake Kimbrough, Julia Page and Tommy Roper.

7/3 J/70 Fri Night Series

This photo was right after we finally got a correct spinnaker set.  It only took us 4 laps to get it right.  On the plus side we got a lot better at outside gybes.

7/3 J/70 Fri Night Series
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Saturday was the Cut Channel Race at Fishing Bay Yacht Club and I was aboard Double Eagle with Sam Mitchener and 7 others for the race.  We couldn’t have asked for much better weather with 10-20 knots out of the East with sunny skies for the 29nm course.  We were among 2 other boats in the PHRF-A fleet and 18 total boats in the race.

We had a good start down by the pin right alongside the other J-109 Afterthought.  The first half of the race was a beat and for the first 2 miles Afterthought inched ahead of us to where they were 5 lengths ahead of us as we turned around C and headed for mark L.  As the wind built we had a better sail selection and a little more weight and were within a couple boat lengths by the time we got to L.

Afterthought crossing us on the way to Q:
Afterthought

From mark L we kept going south while Afterthought tacked and went North as we both made our way east across the bay to mark Q.  The current made all the difference pushing us closer to the mark and we were .8 mi ahead at Q.  As the wind eased and the conditions began to favor Afterthought for the 2nd half of the race they chewed some of that back and we crossed the finish line with a 3:15 minute lead and won our class and had the fastest corrected time of the whole fleet.

I ended up driving upwind and the reach for about 40 minutes which was good to give Sam a break and to see how the sails were affecting the trim.  Mayo, Bonnie, Ed, Matt L, Chris T, Holly F sailed well together and were fun to sail with.  All in all it was a good race and a good result – putting Double Eagle into contention later this year for the long distance series.

Pictures | Results

Our Course (blue) and our track (red dotted):

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